Blogs

How to update your profile

By Emma Tucker posted 2 days ago
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To update your profile, visit https://network.aia.org/network/members/profile while logged in. If you haven’t yet updated anything in your profile, you’ll see a generic avatar for your profile picture, your job title and contact details, and the rest of your profile will be blank, like this:  Updating your profile picture: Underneath the avatar image, click on the “Actions” button, then click on “Change Picture”. We strongly recommend you use a picture that is cropped to a square with your face centered in the image, as images are displayed as a circle across our platform. Contact details ...
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Ed Mazria and an Architecture of the Earth

By Kira L. Gould posted 4 days ago
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Ed Mazria and an Architecture of the Earth by Kira Gould This spring, Ed Mazria, FAIA, will receive the AIA’s highest individual honor, the Gold Medal. This transpires at an auspicious time for architecture and the world. The U.S. just rejoined the Paris Agreement, emissions-related policy is actively being discussed in the government , and climate-responsive design and practice are becoming normalized. I have worked with Ed for several years on advocacy around design and climate change through his organization, Architecture 2030 (I serve as a Senior Fellow) and through the AIA (and its Committee on the Environment).  I spoke with Ed about the state ...
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Letter from the Chair - March/April 2021

By Elizabeth Rupp del Monte FAIA posted 4 days ago
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Now that the new year of 2021 is fully underway, we can take stock of the situation for the country, for architects, and specifically for COTE. Consider that in the first week of the new administration these things happened: A pledge to rejoin the Paris climate accord Cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline A temporarily pause on leasing federal lands for fossil-fuel production Speeding up the process of permitting renewables. A plan for the federal government to buy electric cars in volume. An order to strengthen the EPA, Justice Department, and Energy Department’s focus on environmental justice. An announcement that climate change would become ...
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Partner Content: Lucifer Lighting - Celebrating 40 Years of Product Innovation in Illumination

By April Ovens posted 4 days ago
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By Gilbert Lang Mathews, Hon. AIA, and Suzanne Mathews At Lucifer Lighting , an obsession with architecture, design and art is at the heart of our products and everything we do. We started the company in 1980 – following on previous careers in galleries and the art world and in law. We were inspired by our mutual interest in design and what we saw as an opportunity to bring the attention to detail, craftsmanship and manufacturing typically found in European lighting fixtures to the US. And we quickly found that architects and designers in America had a strong appetite for these products. The early days of the company were spent on research trips to ...
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Advocacy Update: Architecture is Infrastructure

By Michael R. Davis FAIA posted 7 days ago
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The AIA’s public statement “Where we stand: Buildings are infrastructure” was published in September 2017. Support for a national infrastructure re-investment plan that would include “vertical infrastructure” has been on AIA COTE Advocacy’s radar as well. Now, in 2021, with the Biden/Harris Administration being very public about wanting a “Build Back Better” infrastructure package this summer, infrastructure is at the very top of the AIA’s 2021 government advocacy list.   This prioritization is justified, too. Judging by the text of last year’s failed Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), many Members of Congress do not yet think of buildings as infrastructure. This ...
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New COTE Leadership: Helena Zambrano

By Francisco Lopez de Arenosa posted 8 days ago
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Helena Zambrano Based out of San Antonio, Texas, Helena Zambrano , AIA, is an architect who has a wealth of experience in sustainable design. Working at design consultancy Dept. of Sustainability , her days are focused on firm-wide sustainability visioning, research, and project performance simulation for some of the country's leading architecture firms. By night, her contributions to COTE initiatives like the Toolkit (now accessible within the AIA Framework for Design Excellence ) have streamlined the Top Ten Awards, and have ignited her curiosity into a series of topics that she plans to continue to build upon as the newest Advisory Group ...
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New COTE Leadership: Lori Ferriss

By Ian L. Merker AIA posted 11 days ago
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New COTE Leadership:  Lori Ferriss   by Ian Merker     Lori Ferriss, AIA, PE, LEED AP BD+C ,  is Director of Sustainability and Climate Action at Goody Clancy in Boston, MA, and a recent addition to the COTE Advisory Group. Lori brings a unique perspective on preservation and reuse of historic structures as a necessity to reaching zero net carbon goals.      Lori is a founding Co-Chair of the  Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing & Historic Buildings (ZNCC) , a strategic alliance of the AIA, RAIC, Architecture 2030, ICOMOS, and APT committed to championing the responsible reuse of ...
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New COTE Leadership: Kjell Anderson

By Kira L. Gould posted 11 days ago
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New COTE Leadership:  Kjell  Anderson   By Hayley Wilson   Kjell  Anderson ,  AIA, LEED Fellow, is a Principal and the Director of Sustainable Design at  LMN Architects   in Seattle  with  20 years of sustainable design experience, leadership, and activism. He is the author of  Design Energy Simulation for Architects  (Routledge, 2014), the first book on architect-led energy simulation, and previously served on the AIA National Energy Leadership Group and the AIA National Energy Education Working Group. In 2019, Anderson was a co-signer to AIA Resolution 19-11: Resolution for Urgent and Sustained Climate Action, an experience ...
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New COTE Leadership: Elaine Gallagher Adams

By Kira L. Gould posted 11 days ago
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New COTE Leadership:  Elaine Gallagher Adams   By Bridget  Cogley   Elaine Gallagher Adams ,  AIA,  LEED AP,   is an architecture professor at  Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)  and also serves as the Sustainability Director for architecture and interiors firm  LS3P ,  which has offices across the Southeast. As a full-time teacher,  Elaine  is passionate about teaching her students about sustainability, and one of her missions as a new Advisory Group Member is to leverage AIA COTE Top Ten for Students Competition and push its image further.   For the past six years, the architect has worked hard to prepare her students ...
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New Board Committee for Climate Action and Design Excellence

By Kira L. Gould posted 11 days ago
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New Board Committee for Climate Action and Design Excellence   By Kira Gould   The AIA continues to elevate climate action as a priority. In one move that will heighten cohesion and accountability around climate action, the AIA board established a new Board Committee (at the end of 2020), which is convening  now: it is the Committee for Climate Action and Design Excellence (whose acronym, CCADE, is being pronounced like  cicada , as in  the insect superfamily).     CCADE is one of only six Board Committees. These groups report directly to the Board and President about key issues in support of AIA’S Climate Action Plan through the Framework ...
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An interview with Nila R. Leiserowitz

By Steven A. Kordalski AIA posted 28 days ago
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Nila R. Leiserowitz is a builder and entrepreneur—a pillar of both the design and business communities. For more than 40 years, at global companies like Gensler and Perkins+Will, she has championed mentorship initiatives, spearheaded talent development strategies, and pushed the limits of business performance. Nila is all about creating user-focused environments that are a powerful combination of good business and good experiences for people to work in, inhabit, visit and remember. Through holistic design and a multi-disciplinary approach, she works to harness the power of design unlocking the importance of creating healthy environments. To stay at the ...
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2021 AIAU CRAN Course Calendar

By Alexander Chaconas posted 01-19-2021
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2021 AIAU CRAN ® Course Calendar The topics and dates are subject to change. See the 2020 CRAN ® Seminar Series now available on-demand. March The Iconic House in Contemporary Design I Wednesday, March 17 | 1-2:30 pm ET Learn more and register >   April Iconic Houses: Lessons Learned on Detailing for Durability Wednesday, April 21 | 1-2:30 pm ET Registration TBD  May Iconic Room in Contemporary Design Wednesday, May 19 | 1-2:30 pm ET Registration TBD September The Farnsworth House Wednesday, September 15 | 1-2:30 pm ET Registration TBD  October The Iconic House in Contemporary Design II Wednesday, October 20 | 1-2:30 pm ...
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Reimagine America’s Schools: A Blueprint for Equity and Opportunity

By Kerry Leonard AIA posted 01-19-2021
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On January 26, 2021, the Reimagine Schools National Summit will begin to lay out a blueprint for the future. The summit will focus on designing schools for equity and inclusion, including Community Schools 3.0, learning at the intersection of technology and design, and active learning as strategies for greater student achievement. Based on Reimagine America’s Schools work throughout 2020, we invite you to join us in creating a forward-looking vision to build learning communities, implement active learning, better integrate technology and inform a national strategy to design our schools for the future. Date: January 26th, 2021 Time: 12:00-2:00pm (ET) Location: ...
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2021 Letter from the Chair

By Matthew Clapper AIA posted 01-09-2021
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Happy New Year Everyone, 2020 was a crazy and difficult year for everyone, and the AIA’s Small Firm Exchange (SFx) Member Group was no exception.   We plan most of our efforts during an annual, in-person, meeting at the beginning of every year.   We were able to hold that meeting in-person in 2020 and then just two weeks later we found ourselves in an entire new world and our country in lockdown.   Just like every other organization last year, we adjusted.   We put a focus on creating digital content, articles, webinars, and social media so that small firms across the country would still be provided with resources during these trying times.   I want to ...
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Advocacy Update: Green Lights Ahead for 2021

By Michael R. Davis FAIA posted 01-08-2021
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Two recent actions by the US Congress indicate that improving the energy efficiency of commercial buildings is an idea that enjoys bipartisan support. Representatives Schneider (D-IL) and Rice (R-SC) filed the Energy Efficient Qualified Improvement Property, or E-QUIP, Act (HR 8930) in the House Ways and Means Committee on December 9 th , 2020. As a piece of stand-alone legislation, this bill would create a 10-year accelerated depreciation cost recovery mechanism for the purchase and installation of high-performance heating and cooling, lighting, and building envelope components. The AIA has been advocating to make E-QUIP an amendment to the tax code since ...
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Letter from the Chair: January/February 2021

By Elizabeth Rupp del Monte FAIA posted 01-08-2021
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I have the honor of chairing the COTE Advisory Group this year, and on behalf of COTE, welcome to 2021! I think we’re all delighted to be here, mostly to get out of 202 0, but also because this has all the makings of a great year for COTE and for the AIA. Peter Exley, 2021 AIA President, has written a wonderful letter outlining many of the reasons for this. Building on several actions from the last couple of years, the Institute is now aligned to make serious progress on issues that really matter. The newly released 2021-2025 Strategic Plan includes these goals:     climate action for human and ecological health    advance  racial,  ...
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Paycheck Protection Program expands to 501(c)(6) organizations

By Langford Wiggins posted 01-08-2021
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Get details on the expanded PPP, now including nonprofit associations. Speak to your bank or lender today to get your application started. Learn more from the resources shared by ASAE. Applying to the Paycheck Protection Program: What Your Association Needs to Know Issues Brief: Congress Passes Essential COVID Relief Continuing the Paycheck Protection Program and Other Small Business Support- Section by Section #FinanceandOperations
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COTE History: Practice Transformation for a Climate Imperative

By Kira L. Gould posted 01-05-2021
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The AIA Committee on the Environment History:   Practice Transformation for a Climate Imperative    By Kira Gould    The AIA Committee on the Environment turned 30 in 2020, a year that our founding chair, Bob Berkebile, FAIA, reminds us, was supposed to be “the year of perfect vision.” He didn’t know that 2020 would offer us a pandemic and an equity awakening as ways to sharpen our understanding of the climate challenge ahead, but here we are. COTE and its leadership, with 2021 Chair Betsy del Monte, FAIA, at the helm, are starting 2021 with a renewed commitment to accelerating the transformation of the profession as it rises to meet the unified ...
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A New AIA President’s Words to COTE

By Peter J. Exley FAIA posted 01-05-2021
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Dear COTE Members:    Since our membership voted overwhelmingly in 2019 to make climate action our top priority, we’ve marshaled our resources toward this essential fight. Early in 2020, the AIA released a new Climate Action Plan to mitigate sources and owning the significant impact the building industry's footprint has on climate; to adapt to the impact that buildings and other sources make on the environment by transforming our practices; and to catalyze every architect to act.      The Committee on the Environment has, of course for a long time now, confronted the effects of climate change, but embraced the fight for climate action. ...
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2021: Spectacular Top Ten Juries

By Kira L. Gould posted 01-04-2021
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2021: Spectacular Top Ten Juries By Kira Gould   COTE’s flagship programs are the core of its practice transformation mission, and as such, we take choosing the juries for these programs very seriously. This year, we are honored to have amazing jury teams for both the Top Ten Awards and the Top Ten for Students Competition.     The  COTE Top Ten Awards , in its 25 th  year, is the industry’s best known recognition program for honoring holistic design excellence that includes performance, resilience, and community connections. The Top Ten Measures that have been the heart of that program for years are now also the core of the AIA Framework ...
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